The simple breathing gif that can keep you calm – watch and breathe!

Coping with the stresses of daily life can often throw your life into complete disarray. Whether it's getting the kids ready for school, preparing for an important meeting or trying to juggle the million and one things you have set out on your daily schedule, life can be difficult and those niggling annoyances can really start to take their toll.

Much of the working week is spent running around trying to get things done, and if you have teenagers at home on the weekends, it doesn't even stop there. Your stress levels can really start to shoot through the roof when there's an argumentative teenager giving you nothing but grief on a Saturday morning! So what's the key to keeping calm when stressful situations come bounding your way?

We all know the importance of taking some time out to de-stress and unwind, and whilst there are some great long-term practices like mindfulness, relaxing massage and yoga we can practice to achieve a zen-like state, there are some simple breathing exercises that will work wonders on keeping you calm too.

And lucky for you, there's a new gif storming the internet that offers a few quick breathing exercises to soothe a stressed mind in a matter of seconds. The simple technique can be used at any time and anywhere you go, helping viewers to breathe their way to calmness in an instant.

The popular gif – that has gone viral on the internet – starts as a short black line on a grey background, that quickly unfolds into a triangle, then a square, and finally ends its series of patterns as a fully-fledged octagon, before collapsing back to its original form.

The idea is that you breathe in sync with the movements of the shapes, this way if you're feeling stressed or anxious, the deep breathing exercises will help to calm and relax your mind.

The entire loop only takes eight seconds, but we've just tried it and it really does make a difference – what's your verdict?